Four Elis Finish Under 25 Minutes at Wisconsin

Demetri Goutos. (photo by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity)

Oct 12, 2012

Team Makes Major Strides at Biggest Meet of Season

MADISON, Wisc. – Racing at their largest and most competitive meet of the season, the Bulldogs claimed 40th place at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational with 1042 total points. The Elis finished ahead of Ivy League foes Brown and Cornell, but behind Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton. No. 8 Stanford pulled off the upset to take the team title, topping a field that included 20 nationally ranked teams, including six of the top ten teams in the country.

The Bulldogs entered the meet fully aware that it would be their greatest challenge of the season, and perhaps even in program history. Nonetheless, they refused to be intimidated, and came up with a number of solid results of their own, including personal records for their first four finishers.

Sophomore Matthew Nussbaum continued his spectacular season, pacing the Elis in 24:26 for 131st place. Nussbaum's time was the fastest by a Yale cross country runner in over four years. Senior Demetri Goutos was not far off, finishing in 184th place in a time of 24:38. Senior captain Kevin Lunn (216th – 24:52) edged out freshman Kevin Dooney (221st – 24:54), who was the 31st-fastest freshman in the race. It was the first time this season that the Elis saw four of their runners break 25 minutes in the same race.

Sophomore John McGowan was the final Yale scorer, crossing the line in 26:21 for 290th place. Sophomore Jacob Sandry finished 20 seconds later (297th – 26:41).

Coach Paul Harkins decided to take his team to Wisconsin for the first time this year in order to give it exposure to national-caliber competition and illustrate where it hopes to be within the next few years.

The Bulldogs will apply the lessons they learned in Wisconsin to their meet next week at Central Connecticut State University, with Heps on tap for the following week.